Monday, March 12, 2018

First Look: NOAB 5th Edition (NRSV w/Apocrypha)

Thanks to Marc for providing these pictures of the New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha. He reports that he pre-ordered it during the holiday sale in December. The stated release date is April 1st for this edition, but apparently Oxford is shipping pre-orders early! Overall, the construction and type setting of this edition is nearly identical to the fourth edition. I've included a few side by side photos for reference (fourth edition on the left, fifth edition on the right). The text columns continue to be left-justified, and the font of the Bible text and notes remains the same. Physically, the fifth edition is no thicker than the fourth. In fact, it feels a little thinner. This is probably because the pages in my fourth edition have "expanded" with use. It is printed in the Netherlands by Royal Jongbloed.Marc is happy to answer any of your questions in the comments. I really liked the feel and construction of the 4th edition, which was done by Royal Jongbloed as well.

New to this Edition:

-Twenty new essays and introductions, including new essays
on Time/Calendar and Languages of the Bible

17 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I bought the fourth edition not too long after it came out. At this point, I can't keep up with the Joneses. This is too expensive a Bible (well, at least in fine leather) to buy a new edition every few years.

I wonder if this edition is a bit more traditional minded. The last edition seemed to almost scoff at traditional Christian beliefs in the notes.

Vladimir: I haven't reviewed the notes extensively in this edition yet. I share Theophrastus' expectation that the tenor of the notes will remain similar to the last edition. If you'd like me to check the notes for any particular passage, let me know. I'd be happy to relay more information.

I now have my copy of the NOAB5 and am able to compare it to the NOAB4.

(1) The most immediate difference I note over NOAB4 is a slightly smaller font used for the notes, introductions to the Biblical books, and essays. If you have both editions, look at the introduction to Exodus, for example. As a result, I noted that Genesis, for example, contains substantially more notes.

(2) The concordance, which was 72 pages long in the NOAB4 (and in print so tiny I had trouble reading it even with magnifying glasses) is gone. However, the total page count is the same, and the print used for notes/essays/introductions is smaller, so this edition contains a great deal more supplementary material

(3) The calendar table has been replaced by a 3 page section called "Time" in which the Calendar table is included. That Calendar name has relabeled "Babylonian name" to "Israelite/Jewish" (with a footnote stating that "Israelite" month names were derived from Babylonian names.) Months not mentioned in the Bible are now placed in parenthesis. Egyptian names for two of the months and Greek names for three of the months now appear. "Modern equivalent" has been renamed "Julian/Roman." A new column includes "Major Festivals."

(4) The Parallel Texts tables now add a new table "Parallel Texts from the Gospel of John."

(5) A new table now includes the Chapter/Verse differences between the Hebrew chapter/verse (as defined by the NJPS) and English Bibles.

(6) There is a serious typographical error in the "Translations of Ancient Texts" section. The sections on Introductory, Ancient Near Eastern, and Early Jewish sections appear twice. This clearly represents a very serious copy-editing issue.

Theophrastus: I set both of my editions side-by-side and compared the size of the text in the introduction to Exodus. To my eye, the text size looked identical. To make sure, I measured the distance between lines of the text in each edition (a measurement which would be a composite of both text size and line spacing), and sure enough, it was identical. I then took the same measurement in the annotations of Genesis: same result -- the text size is identical between my two editions.

I double-checked your point #6 above (typographical error in the "Translations of Ancient Texts" section), and my edition has the same error. I wouldn't classify it as a serious error for most users. It's a minor annoyance, and it only affects a two-page section. From an editor's perspective, though, I agree that it's a glaring mistake.

(11) The OT increased in size from 1360 pages to 1376 pages. The Apocrypha increased in size from 382 to 398 pages. The NT increased in size from 440 to 458 pages. The Essays/Tables/Bibliography/Glossary/Index section (not including the Concordance or Color Maps) increased in size from 129 to 154 pages.

To wxmarc: note that the margins have changed in the text. In NOAB4, the outer margin was about 17.5mm while in the NOAB5 it is closer to 20mm.

Theophrastus: I just measured the margins in the introduction to Exodus in the Fourth and Fifth editions. I find the opposite of what you described. In the NOAB4, the outer margin measures about 21.5mm and in the NOAB5, it is about 18.5mm. I double and triple-checked the version numbers to make sure I wasn't deceiving myself.

Flipping forward to the introduction to Ezekiel, I find a very similar pattern: NOAB4: 20.5mm, NOAB5: 18.5mm

Interesting. As shown in the pictures Timothy posted, I have the leather editions of both the NOAB4 and NOAB5. I checked the front matter of my NOAB4, but I don't see anything about a second or third printing. The copyright is 2010.

I would think the typesetting would be identical for the hardcover and leather editions, but the (admittedly minor) discrepancies between our editions makes me wonder. When I purchased the NOAB4, I found multiple reviews online that mentioned pages falling out of the hardcover edition of the NOAB4. That made me suspicious that at least some copies of the hardcover edition had a glued, rather than sewn binding. That's one of the main reasons I went for the leather edition. I'm not sure if the glued copies (including the paperback versions) are published by Royal Jongbloed or not.

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Message 4 Next Week

Prayer of Thomas Merton

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.